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A dejected Chris Webber, upset over his costly last-minute timeout error, leaves the court with head bowed in agony as teammate Leon Derricks tries to console him.


'M' drops title game,

77-

71, in final

minute; Carolina takes NCAA crown

by Ken Suguira
Daily Basketball Writer
NEW ORLEANS - The ending
to the story was anything but happy.
4 It wasn't the way to cap off a night
of thrilling, heart-racing, paralyzing
basketball. Garish is what it was.
Eleven seconds from superhero
ot..-- :f:-: in.-i- A nmr:- Tn

With 11 seconds remaining in
last night's NCAA championship,
the All-American sophomore called
for a timeout, unaware that his
team's timeout 35 seconds earlier
was its third and final.
"If I knew we didn't have time-
outs left, then I wouldn't have called
nnP. "f

forward George Lynch, Webber was
instructed to make the call.
"It sounded like the whole bench
was yelling, 'Call timeout! Call
timeout!"' Lynch said.
Michigan coach Steve Fisher said
he had informed his players of the
timeout situation.
"I think thev were (told)" he

"We were going to foul if he
hadn't taken a timeout," North Car-
olina coach Dean Smith said. "We
only had three fouls and we would
have kept fouling and it would have
been hard for them."
The Final Four Most Outstanding
Player Donald Williams swished
both technical foul free throws